(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a dispensing apparatus for elongate flat articles, especially newspapers, magazines, books and the like. In particular the present invention relates to a dispensing apparatus which uses a rachet or pawl mechanism which engages a roller with notches or indentations provided around at least one end of a horizontally oriented roller on a shaft such that the mechanism locks the shaft and roller together for dispensing of the articles by the roller and then releases the roller to roll on the shaft in a non-dispensing direction.
(2) Prior Art
Numerous dispensing mechanisms has been described by the prior art. They are generally quite complicated, expensive and unreliable and have not found wide use. The most common newspaper dispenser is a box which opens in the front when a coin is inserted in a slot in a coin holder, thus exposing all of the newspapers in the box. The loss of newspapers from such dispensers is very large (about 25%) but so far a reliable single paper dispenser has not been available. Another problem is that the weather renders the dispenser inoperative because of heat or of freezing of lubricants or water and the like in the mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,720,588 to Cameron describes the use of a dispensing plate carrying the article which is moved out of an opening in the front of the apparatus. A shaft is moved by a handle to dispense the article, such as a newspaper. U.S. Pat. No. 1,846,484 to Gruber shows a dispenser which uses a movable friction roller to dispense a sheet of paper. U.S. Pat. No. 2,180,326 to Traversy describes a device wherein a pick device engages a newspaper on the top of a stack to dispense the newspaper. U.S. Pat. No. 3,082,910 to Skold shows a dispenser which relies on gravity to dispense the newspaper. U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,248 to Hawks shows sideways dispensing of vertically oriented newspapers. U.S. Pat. No. 3,709,405 to Harris describes a complex device which uses pins to engage the newspaper for dispensing. U.S. Pat. No. 3,871,641 shows a single sheet feeding device. U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,113 shows a map dispenser which uses linear movement of a projection to dispense the map. As can be seen from these patents the prior art devices are complex and are not believed to be particularly reliable in dispensing, particularly where the dispenser is exposed to the elements.